By IANS
New Delhi : With the deadly bird flu virus spreading to more areas in West Bengal, a worried central government Thursday said awareness campaigns about the disease would be run in the electronic and print media. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has expressed concern over the spread of the disease.
Information and Broadcasting Minister Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi said here Thursday that the prime minister had called for a widespread campaign be launched against the disease across the country.
“I have been directed by the prime minister to give widespread publicity to the bird flu situation,” Dasmunsi told reporters after a cabinet meeting.
“We are launching a campaign via All India Radio as many villages have no access to television,” the minister added.
A health ministry official said: “The campaign includes broadcast of spots on private and government owned FM channels in West Bengal. The spots would be broadcast five to six times before and between popular programmes and the national news during morning and late evening hours.”
The states to be covered include Bihar, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Rajasthan, Orissa, Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Meghalaya, Manipur, Nagaland, Sikkim, Tripura, Jammu and Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh.
The official Doordarshan television centres in Patna, Ranchi, Kolkata and Guwahati would start telecasting bird flu campaigns.
Though bird flu was not on the cabinet’s agenda, the issue was discussed at length. Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar gave a detailed account of the situation in West Bengal, where nine districts have been affected by avian influenza.
Dasmunsi blamed the state government for its “lethargy” in reporting the bird flu situation.
“There was a little delay in culling the birds. The bird flu started Jan 4 in some parts of West Bengal but the attention of the central government was drawn only on Jan 11,” the minister said.
Dasmunsi said that a “timely joint initiative (by the centre and the state) could have been launched earlier to control it”.
India confirmed Jan 15 the outbreak of bird flu after laboratory tests found the H5N1 strains in the dead poultry in Birbhum and South Dinajpur districts of West Bengal.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has already expressed concern over the situation in West Bengal and termed it as “serious”.
Of over 2.1 million poultry earmarked for culling in the nine districts, only 430,000 have been slaughtered so far – nine days after the outbreak was declared.
Dasmunsi said the West Bengal chief secretary was in touch with the agriculture ministry on a day-to-day basis.
The state has informed the centre that it has adequate medicines and equipment to handle the situation, Dasmunsi said. “The culling operation is on, and if required the centre would provide all necessary help to West Bengal.”